Loomis Chaffee welcomes 15 new members of the faculty this year.  

Orientation for the new faculty was August 26–28 with a whirlwind of activity, ranging from sessions on various aspects of the school to a dinner at the Head’s House and a barbeque on Rockefeller Quad.  

Doug McLeod, who is the Social Sciences Department head, is new to Loomis but not to teaching. He has been an educator for about 18 years, including the last nine at Pomfret Academy. 

“I’m excited to get started,” Doug said after a morning session on teaching led by Sara Deveaux, the director of the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, and Ned Heckman, an associate director of the center. In addition to their work in the Kravis Center, Sara teaches French, and Ned teaches science. 

Doug most recently was a dean of academics, so he hasn’t been teaching as much as he will at Loomis.  “I almost feel like a new teacher again,” he said. “The new faculty orientation has been a great group, and it has been heartening to learn about all the different parts of Loomis. I knew it as an outsider, but not like this. The open-mindedness and positive energy feels really good.” 

He said he is looking forward to meeting the students, who will arrive next week. 

The orientation session on teaching included multiple activities in teams. One was called “The One-Word Story.” Teachers partnered with one another to create a spoken story — a “once upon a time” story — one word at a time. Back and forth the partners went until they felt they had reached a natural conclusion. The story then ended with “The moral of the story is ...” 

The groups then shared the morals of their stories, which included “How to teach cats to swim,” “Trucks are faster than people,” and “Don’t lose your passport,”  

So why do this exercise, Sara asked the group. 

Participants replied that the exercise got them to think on their feet, take risks, and do something out of their comfort zone, just as teachers ask their students to do. Sara added that about the activity also helped the participants become more comfortable with uncertainty and embrace an initial awkwardness. Plus, it was fun. 

The new faculty members also were asked to journal for a few minutes on their hopes and fears for the school year. This group will have regularly scheduled meetings throughout the school year, so they also considered why Loomis asks them to participate in a new faculty cohort.   

 “As a new hire sometimes you might feel, ‘Oh, I'm the new hire,’ where this space allows us to just be us,” one teacher said. Another noted that all the teachers gathered in the orientation come from different schools and backgrounds with varying levels of experience, “but in this space we are all zero, page one, together, and that is special.” 

“Since the new faculty cohort will meet 14 times during the year, this first day sets the stage for their growth together,” Sara said. “The LC faculty are among the most reflective I’ve worked with, regularly discussing their practice with colleagues, cohorts, and departments. Therefore, Ned and I aim to foster a collaborative community and normalize reflective practice early on. During orientation, we introduce key concepts in cognitive science (how the brain encodes knowledge), explore effective lesson design considerations, and, most importantly, explore the joys of teaching and working with adolescent learners.”  

Other topics discussed during the orientation days included diversity, the role of advising students, the role of the deans, dorm life, academic policies, and the school's professional culture. There also was time for one-on-one discussions between new faculty members and more senior faculty who will serve as their instructional coaches/mentors. Breakfast and lunch were times to get to know LC administrators, and the Monday dinner and Wednesday barbeque provide a bit of relaxation and a sense of community. 

The new faculty are: 

Science teachers Mike Armstrong, Amy Cornell, and Fahmeed Sheehan; language teachers Maria Arroyo-Contreras and Gigi Hodes; language teacher and head of the Modern & Classical Languages Department Eera Sharma; History, Philosophy & Religious Studies Department teachers Sanaea Simmons and Caroline Murphy; English teachers Maggie Howes and Wyatt Prominski; social science teacher Scott Doyle; social science teacher and head of Social Science Department Doug McLeod; Director of Sports Performance Shaun Fishel; Dean of Community Life Chris Howes; and Roland Davis, director of the Center for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion/special assistant to the head of school.